Friday, February 28, 2014

Fear Friday ~ Not Your Average Love Story

It's Friday and this week's Fear Friday selection is the last of the Valentine themed movies. This film is a beautiful and sweet yet ultimately twisted tale of love and longing to be loved. For anyone who has felt like the odd one in the room. For anyone who has felt too shy to talk to that one special boy. And especially for all of those who like their love stories dark and creepy, this is the love story for you. This Vixen list this as one of her favorite movies. Enjoy!

Every Friday at the Laughing Vixen Lounge Blog is Fear Friday. Fear Fridays are a celebration of all films spooky. Horror is a very broad genre and the Lounge loves it all. Each Friday you will find a review of a different film. These can range from Classic Horror (black and white and cheesy), Thrillers (suspense, jumps and a good mystery), outright Horror (chop chop, slash slash, die die) and anything else in between.

So pop some popcorn, kill the lights and enjoy tonight's selection. And please, share your comments on the film. Bad or good let me know what you thought of it. And now, my little ghouls and dolls, the Laughing Vixen Lounge Blog is proud to present this week's film.

Fear Friday - May

Tagline - If you can't find a friend... make one.
Be Careful... She Just Might Take Your
Heart.

Directed by Lucky McKee (The Woods and Red) and released on June 6, 2003 by Lions Gate Films (Rated R). May (Angela Bettis) has always been "different" and has trouble finding friends. Her best friend is Suzy a creepy old doll kept inside a glass box. May tries so hard to connect with the people around her like Adam (Jeremy Sisto) the boy she likes and Polly (Anna Faris) the girl she works with. But no one seems to understand May and no one sticks around for long. As May's mother once told her "If you can't find a friend make one".

This is a wonderful movie. It's so much more than a horror film. Angela Bettis is so good in her role as May that you can't help feeling for this character. We can all see a little bit of ourselves in her. The wanting to be accepted, trying to get the attention of a certain boy, wanting someone to like you for who you are and all the other insecure feelings we all have. May just happens to be a little closer to the edge of sanity then most. It's both sad and scary to watch her slide into madness.

The look of the film and the music work well. There is some blood but it's not over the top. It's just used effectively. The scene with the blind children, Suzy and May it just hard for me to watch but wonderfully done. The best scene here will come at the very end of the last scene. The first time I saw it I was creeped out. It is so unexpected and so wrong on so many levels!!! It's subtle but very effective. You should really go check this one out.

Take a look at the original trailer.

Some trivia about the movie.
1. Director Lucky McKee has a cameo as the man with his girlfriend in the elevator, both times.
2. Originally the film opened with a lengthy introduction to May as a child. But when the film appeared to be taking too long to get to its point, most of those scenes were cut. The opening with the adult May, specifically the first scene with her and her doll, were shot quickly and only to make the point that May was lonely as quickly as possible.
3. The scene where Blank and May meet was a re-shoot. In the original scene, May was not cold and vague, but angry, and insulted people as they walked by on the street. The scene ended with the two of them in the park. That scene is still in the film but entirely replaced and reedited. It is now the scene where Adam and May meet and have their final talk in the park. The scene is told only through close ups, with both May and Adam glancing off camera. They were originally looking at Blank who was sitting beside her but he was edited out of the scene completely.
4. There is a movie called "Roman" which is directed by Angela Bettis and stars Lucky McKee. A reversal of roles.
5. The teenage girl who asks May "got any cold ones in there" is dressed up as a zombie cheerleader in the exact same costume and makeup from Lucky McKee's very first movie, _All Cheerleaders Must Die (2001) (V). 6. In the very beginning of the film we see young May with a black patch over her left eye (the right eye, from an audience perspective). Skip forward a few minutes and May is now a young woman with a "lazy" right eye (the left eye, from an audiences' perspective). 7. When May takes a cigarette out of the Bilson box, a camel cigarette logo can be seen along the bottom part of the cigarette.